Tillakaratne Dilshan announces retirement from International Cricket

Sri Lanka veteran Tillakaratne Dilshan has announced his total retirement from international cricket during the ongoing home series against Australia.

The dashing opening batsman confirmed that he will retire from ODI Cricket after the third ODI at Dambulla this Sunday.

Dilshan who is going to turn 40 next month also said that he will retire from T20I Cricket after playing the Colombo T20 against the same team on September 9 which is the second T20 of the series.

It can be recalled that Tillakaratne Dilshan retired from test cricket in 2013 after playing 87 tests and scoring 5492 runs with the help of 16 centuries.

Tillakaratne Dilshan

Buzz is that Angelo Mathews and the Sri Lankan selectors have been keen on building a team for the 2019 World Cup. As part of the plan, Tillakaratne Dilshan has been reportedly persuaded to retire to give other youngsters the opportunity to play at the highest level.

He was spotted in a discussion with chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya ahead of the ongoing ODI series against the Aussies.

Dilshan had earlier missed the England tour due to personal reasons.

It is learnt that Dilshan was reluctant to retire. However, scores of 22 and 10 in the first two ODIs seems to have changed his decision towards retirement. Perhaps he was even forced to announce it himself before facing the axe from the selectors.

He is part of the elite club of Sri Lanka batsmen who have scored over 10,000 ODI runs. The elite club includes Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

Dilshan till date has played in 329 ODIs scoring 22 centuries and 47 fifties at a near average of 40.00 at a healthy strike rate of 86.34.

He is also till date the second highest run scorer T20I history while being one of the very few batsmen to have scored centuries in all the three formats of the game.

Dilshan started off as a middle order batsman since his debut in 1999 but gradually went on to become an opener ten years later. It was in the opening slot that he blossomed into a world class performer.

Also a miserly off-spinner, Dilshan has bagged 106 ODI wickets till date with a useful economy rate under 5.00.

Dilshan also had the honour of captaining his country between May 2010 and January 2012.

An innovative batsman at his best, Tillakaratne Dilshan is credited to have invented the paddle scoop shot against the pace bowlers which is famously called as the Dilscoop.